Teaching Reading

By :
Nanda Rizka Utami
Amira Fakhriah M.Nasir
M. Haikal
 Goals and Techniques for Teaching
Reading
Teachers want to produce students who, even if they do not
have complete control of the grammar or an extensive
lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication
situations. In the case of reading, this means producing
students who can use reading strategies to maximize their
comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant
information, and tolerate less than word-by-word
comprehension.
 Focus: The Reading Process
To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of reading rather
than on its product.
Teachers develop students' awareness of the reading process and reading
strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they read in
their native language.
Teachers allow students to practice the full repertoire of reading
strategies by using authentic reading tasks. Teachers encourage students
to read to learn (and have an authentic purpose for reading) by giving
students some choice of reading material.
When working with reading tasks in class, teachers show students the
strategies that will work best for the reading purpose and the type of
text.Teachers explain how and why students should use the strategies.
Teachers have students practice reading strategies in class and ask them
to practice outside of class in their reading assignments. Teachers
encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they
complete reading assignments.
 Teachers encourage students to evaluate their comprehension
and self-report their use of strategies. Teachers build
comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class reading
assignments, and periodically review how and when to use
particular strategies.
Teachers encourage the development of reading skills and the
use of reading strategies by using the target language to
convey instructions and course-related information in
written form: office hours, homework assignments, test
content.
Teachers do not assume that students will transfer strategy
use from one task to another. Teachers explicitly mention
how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of
reading task or with another skill.
 Integrating Reading Strategies
Instructors/teachers can help their students become effective
readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during,
and after reading.
Before reading: Plan for the reading task
Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down
(attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus
on the words and phrases)
During and after reading: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Reread to check comprehension
Ask for help
After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of
reading tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and
for the task
Modify strategies if necessary
 Using Authentic Materials and Approaches
1. The reading material must be authentic: It must be
the kind of material that students will need and want to be
able to read when traveling, studying abroad, or using the
language in other contexts outside the classroom.
2. The reading purpose must be authentic: Students
must be reading for reasons that make sense and have
relevance to them. "Because the teacher assigned it" is not
an authentic reason for reading a text.
3. The reading approach must be authentic: Students
should read the text in a way that matches the reading
purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally
read.
 Using Reading Strategies
Strategies that can help students read more quickly and
effectively include
Previewing
Predicting.
Skimming and scanning
Guessing from context
Paraphrasing
Instructors can help students learn when and how to use reading
strategies in several ways.
By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of
previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing.
This shows students how the strategies work and how much they
By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and
predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class
reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their
importance and value.
By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary
items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.
By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think
will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking
after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps
students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.
 Reading to Learn
Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every
level because it supports learning in multiple ways.
Reading to learn the language
Reading for content information
Reading for cultural knowledge and awareness
When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:
Figure out the purpose for reading. Activate background
knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and
identify appropriate reading strategies.
Attend to the parts of the text that are relevant to the
identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables
students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount
of information they have to hold in short-term memory.
Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and
use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension
improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and
bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning.
Check comprehension while reading and when the reading
task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect
inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use
alternate strategies.
 Developing Reading Activities
Developing reading activities involves more than identifying a text that
is "at the right level," writing a set of comprehension questions for
students to answer after reading, handing out the assignment and
sending students away to do it. A fully-developed reading activity
supports students as readers through pre-reading, while-reading, and
post-reading activities.
Construct the reading activity around a purpose that has
significance for the students.
Define the activity's instructional goal and the
appropriate type of response
Check the level of difficulty of the text
Use pre-reading activities to prepare students for reading
Match while-reading activities to the purpose for reading